S/o List of signs of financial scams I can flag for older relatuves

[Anonymous]

Another thread about older relatives being scammed has me wondering about putting together a good list of signs something is a scam, which I can then print out and give to elderly relatives. I’m also interested in hearing about what specific scams people here have encountered. I have someone who is of the mindset that “that could never happen to me,” and it would be helpful if I could provide lots of examples of scams people have encountered.

[Anonymous]

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/consumer-protection/consumer-alerts/consumer-alerts/scams/grandparent-family-emergency-scam#:~:text=TELEPHONE%20CON%20ARTISTS%20TARGET%20SENIOR,ransom%20or%20grandchildren%20in%20distress.

This one, where a caller pretends to be the elderly person's grandchild in need of money.

[Anonymous]

My mother fell victim to the "there's a questionable charge on your Amazon account" scam. I think there are multiple versions of that one.

In her case, they told her to go to her computer and enter a website address (actually, I think it was just the IP address -- all numbers and dots). That brought up a webform and they walked her through entering a lot of personal information, including the amount of the "questionable charge."

Then they say she's done something wrong, entered the wrong amount and now Amazon has deposited $50,000 into her bank account and she has to immediately send it back or she'll go to jail.

My mother is not stupid, but the next day she was in her bank authorizing a $50,000 wire transfer to some woman in China.

[Anonymous]

My father got a call saying he had won some big prize and all he needed to do to claim it was pay the taxes on it.

Found out because he told my mother he was heading to the store to get $2,000 in Visa gift cards to pay the taxes on his "prize". To some guy he was going to meet in a shopping center parking lot.

It's crazy what they'll believe, but they will.

[Anonymous]

This might not work - there are a lot of reasons elderly people fall or "fall" for scams.

But try just convincing them that NO ONE who calls them is legit. Your bank will almost NEVER call you. The exception to this rule is the "Know Your Customer" thing which I actually think was a big policy mistake because it does resemble a scam and may confuse people later. There are also fraud alerts but those are recordings and don't ask for anything.

If they do have a call that they think is legit, they need to use the Call Back rule. Whatever institution they say they're from, train your parents to write it down and their name and title. Say you need to call back. Then use a published number for the institution, such as the one on the back of their bank card, to call back. You can always get through to whoever it was via the main number if it's legit. There is absolutely no legitimate matter where they can't wait for you to call back. So train your parents that anyone who resists or says they need to call a direct number is a scammer.

There are times where they could stick to this rule and end up inconvenienced, such as dealing with airlines when rescheduling and for lost luggage. But those situations are few and far between imo.

The problem is that one of the main reasons people fall for these things is for the emotional benefits. The PP's dad who was going to get the gift cards to pay taxes on his prize was excited. And he had an important task to accomplish. Those can be very valuable emotions to an older person and their brains will work hard to suspend disbelief.

[Anonymous]

My dad got a message on his computer that it was infected with a virus and that he had to call a number from Microsoft to fix it. He called them and was on the phone with them for about 20 minutes before I came in and asked him to hand the phone to me. They had him enter some code and they got access to his computer. Even moving the curser remotely and asking him to plug in the computer because it was running low on power. I asked “Microsoft” to call back and hung up on them. Looked up the call back number and it was a known scam number. We had to wipe his whole hard drive to avoid any key detection software they may have installed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This might not work - there are a lot of reasons elderly people fall or "fall" for scams.

But try just convincing them that NO ONE who calls them is legit. Your bank will almost NEVER call you. The exception to this rule is the "Know Your Customer" thing which I actually think was a big policy mistake because it does resemble a scam and may confuse people later. There are also fraud alerts but those are recordings and don't ask for anything.

If they do have a call that they think is legit, they need to use the Call Back rule. Whatever institution they say they're from, train your parents to write it down and their name and title. Say you need to call back. Then use a published number for the institution, such as the one on the back of their bank card, to call back. You can always get through to whoever it was via the main number if it's legit. There is absolutely no legitimate matter where they can't wait for you to call back. So train your parents that anyone who resists or says they need to call a direct number is a scammer.

There are times where they could stick to this rule and end up inconvenienced, such as dealing with airlines when rescheduling and for lost luggage. But those situations are few and far between imo.

The problem is that one of the main reasons people fall for these things is for the emotional benefits. The PP's dad who was going to get the gift cards to pay taxes on his prize was excited. And he had an important task to accomplish. Those can be very valuable emotions to an older person and their brains will work hard to suspend disbelief.

I'm the PP whose mother wired money to China and this PP is SO EXACTLY RIGHT.

My mother lives alone, this was deep into COVID when she literally hadn't spoken to a soul in days and this guy who called just immediately tapped into her loneliness. He actually called her several times -- including several times after I got involved (unfortunately too late to stop the wire).

He offered to come by and take her to lunch. You have no idea how excited she was.

[Anonymous]

This is so sad…what we all have to look forward to…ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so sad…what we all have to look forward to…ugh.

Not me, I love being alone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother fell victim to the "there's a questionable charge on your Amazon account" scam. I think there are multiple versions of that one.

In her case, they told her to go to her computer and enter a website address (actually, I think it was just the IP address -- all numbers and dots). That brought up a webform and they walked her through entering a lot of personal information, including the amount of the "questionable charge."

Then they say she's done something wrong, entered the wrong amount and now Amazon has deposited $50,000 into her bank account and she has to immediately send it back or she'll go to jail.

My mother is not stupid, but the next day she was in her bank authorizing a $50,000 wire transfer to some woman in China.

How old is she and did the wire go through? I hope not!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother fell victim to the "there's a questionable charge on your Amazon account" scam. I think there are multiple versions of that one.

In her case, they told her to go to her computer and enter a website address (actually, I think it was just the IP address -- all numbers and dots). That brought up a webform and they walked her through entering a lot of personal information, including the amount of the "questionable charge."

Then they say she's done something wrong, entered the wrong amount and now Amazon has deposited $50,000 into her bank account and she has to immediately send it back or she'll go to jail.

My mother is not stupid, but the next day she was in her bank authorizing a $50,000 wire transfer to some woman in China.

How old is she and did the wire go through? I hope not!

78 and yes it did. I didn’t find out about it until the next day, when it was too late to stop it.
The bank manager actually asked her twice if she really wanted to send this money and whether she was under any duress. But she was so sure that she would go to jail if she didn’t return this “Amazon money” that she authorized the transfer twice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My father got a call saying he had won some big prize and all he needed to do to claim it was pay the taxes on it.

Found out because he told my mother he was heading to the store to get $2,000 in Visa gift cards to pay the taxes on his "prize". To some guy he was going to meet in a shopping center parking lot.

It's crazy what they'll believe, but they will.

If anyone here works for a 401(k) plan company, talk to them about telemarketing program security.

Empower had someone cold call me about a financial wellness review. Maybe that kind of review is scammy in and of itself, but I could see how clear-cut scamsters could start using fake financial wellness calls to loot people. If 401(k) plans use telemarketing at all, they need to figure out how to help people tell fake plan calls from real plan calls.

[Anonymous]

If you, or your elderly family member, is a member of AARP, freedom of the newsletters. Excellent articles on the most recent scams out there.

My older teens are in high school, my parents are in their upper 70s and early 80s. I'm tired.

[Anonymous]

My mom got caught in a scam when she got an e-mail about a charge that she had never authorized. She called them and they gave her a "refund" for $6,000 more than she was supposed to get (about $200, supposedly). She went to the bank and authorized a wire transfer for the $6K to them and hasn't gotten it back. I wrote into DCUM about it and someone suggested I reach out to the CFPB, which I did.

My uncle was able to get the wire transfer stopped, but the bank hasn't returned her money. Apparently the bank just holds on to it until they complete their review or whatever, which seems to be never-ending.

[Anonymous]

magazine subscriptions! my mom subscribes to the new yorker and foreign affairs. Well, she got these calls tellig her the subscription was ending soon and giving her a 'great rate" and she gave her card out over the phone, several times. Once I had access to her account I saw she was charged more than 5k over 2 years by various fly by night outfits (and only one copy of the magazines ever came) for bogus subscriptions. I told her never to give her credit card #over the phone. Sadly she was not reviewing her statements, so most of these are too long gone to dispute, although I filed complaints with FTC and bureau of consumer affairs and attorneygeneral in her state.